Archery Is On The Rise With Help From Movies Like ‘Catching Fire’
Article reprinted from Forbes.com by Ethan Gach
For much of popular culture, 2012 was the year of the bow. Between the Avengers‘ Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and The Hunger Games‘ Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), as well as Brave‘s Merida, archery as a means of self-defense coupled with self-expression retook the public’s imagination.
Interest in the sport is up across the board, with membership in the country’s National Governing Body for the Olympic sport alone having doubled since 2011. Archery was also the most watched sport during the first week of NBC’s 2012 Olympic Games coverage. But what exactly is behind the public’s recent embrace of the sometimes deadly skill, and how does its real life practice compare to its depiction in popular media?
